The invention relates to a locking apparatus for doors of housings or cabinets having in particular narrow frame profiles, with a bolt mechanism that is longitudinally guided in the frame profile of the cabinet or housing, and with a door plate that can be fixed to the exterior of the door leaf and in which a handle can be pulled out of the plane of the door plate and can be locked and unlocked in its inserted position in the door plate by means of a lock in the door plate, whereby arranged in the intermediate space located between the door leaf and the door plate are at least one pinion coupled to the handle and one transfer member that is driven by the pinion and that can, for longitudinally displacing it, be coupled to the bolt mechanism arranged in the frame profile of the cabinet or housing, and whereby the door plate has at least one member that is for receiving the lock and that extends through the door leaf in a through-hole arranged outside of the frame profile, and whereby the door plate has a first door plate area receiving the handle and a second door plate area.
EP 0 675 994 B1 describes a locking apparatus having the foregoing features that is suitable especially for cabinets and housings, the frame profiles of which have only a narrow cross-section for receiving a bolt mechanism housed therein. This bolt mechanism comprises at least one locking rod in rod guides guided in the frame profile, and engaging locking mounts located in the frame profile of the cabinet or housing. Since the frame profile does not have adequate room for receiving actuating parts affixed on the door and projecting over its interior side, which parts protrude all the way to the cabinet plane when the door is closed, in the known locking apparatus the door plate is formed with two door plate areas, whereby the handle, along with pinion, pivot pin bearing, and the locking apparatus for the handle are arranged in the second door plate area located laterally beside the frame profile of the cabinet or housing and here go through the door leaf toward the interior in provided through-holes, while the first door plate area, which does not have any special functioning parts, covers the transfer member arranged in the intermediate space between door leaf and door plate and its connection to the bolt mechanism located in the frame profile of the cabinet or housing.
The known locking apparatus is associated with the disadvantage that, due to the arrangement of handle and pinion in the second door plate area, a substantial distance to the bolt mechanism to be driven thereby must be bridged by means of the transfer member, so that, for instance, if the bolt mechanism tilts in the frame profile when the handle is actuated, a corresponding amount of torque must be applied, which increases the actuating forces to be applied and results in a high degree of stress to the cooperating teeth in the components so that the service life of the locking apparatus can be reduced.
The object of the present invention is therefore to prevent the aforesaid disadvantages in a locking apparatus with the generic features.
This object is achieved, including advantageous embodiments and further developments of the invention, using the contents of the patent claims that follow this specification.
The basic idea of the invention is that the first door plate area receiving the handle with the pinion borne on the interior-side of the door plate is arranged in front of the frame profile of the cabinet or housing with the bolt mechanism located therein, and, guided as a transfer member in the gap existing between pinion and the exterior wall of the first door plate area, is a toothed rod that is arranged parallel to the door leaf and that on its leading edge has teeth that engage in the pinion teeth and that has on its surface facing the frame profile a connecting element for the bolt mechanism arranged in the frame profile of the housing or cabinet, and in that the second door plate area located outside of the frame profile before the at least one through-hole of the door leaf has a mount for the lock for the handle that is arranged in the second door plate area, whereby the lock when actuated causes the release of the handle via a bolt plate that spans the first and second door plate areas and that is displaceable against the effect of a spring.
The present invention has the advantage that the handle provided for actuating the bolt mechanism located in the frame profile of the housing or cabinet is housed with the pinion and transfer member in the first door plate area that comes to rest before the frame profile when the door is closed without components that go through the door leaf being necessary, so that the actuating forces can be transferred from the handle on the short path directly to the bolt mechanism. If the lock for the handle protrudes over the door leaf plane towards the interior due to the necessary components, the lock is arranged in the second door plate area located outside the frame profile of the cabinet or housing when the door is closed so that it is only necessary to provide for a transfer of the closing or opening forces from the lock to the locking/unlocking for the handle, which inventively occurs by means of the bolt plate displaceably arranged on the interior side of the door plate.
In accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the present invention it is provided that the toothed rod is embodied in a rectangular shape with one leg actuated by the pinion and with one guide leg arranged at right angles thereto, and the guide leg has a cut-out for engaging a nose located on the bolt plate mounted on the door plate. This embodiment is associated with the advantage that the toothed rod does not require any particular mount, but rather is displaceably fixed via the nose engaging it that is a part of the bolt plate mounted on the door plate.
With regard to the embodiment and mounting of the pinion, in accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, it is provided that the pinion is embodied as a flat disk rotatably borne in a hat-shaped bearing ring of the door plate with pinion teeth that are axially raised on one side, whereby the diameter of the disk is greater than the diameter of the pinion teeth. This is associated with the advantage that the toothed rod provides the mount for the pinion in that the teeth embodied on the leading edge of the toothed rod engage in the pinion teeth raised axially on the disk and thereby is adjacent to the disk forming the pinion and thereby simultaneously holds the pinion against its bearing in the hat-shaped bearing ring.
If the pinion is fixed and borne on the door plate, in accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the pinion itself is also used for the attachment or pivotable mounting of the handle in the door plate in that it is provided that the pinion has on its side opposing the pinion teeth a projection that extends into the depression of the door plate that receives the handle, on which projection are mounted a pivot pin of the handle engaging in the pinion in a form fit and the handle borne so as to be pivotable at right angles to the door plate plane. Since the handle is fixed on the pinion with the pivot pin, there is no need for attaching the pivot pin or the shaft extending through the pinion by means of a separate fastening nut, as is required in the prior art, which would also project into the interior of the cabinet or housing in an undesired manner.
In accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, if it is provided that the mounting of handle and pivot pin is detachable on the projection of the pinion when the handle is in a position pulled-out from the door plate, this results in the advantage that when the door plate is reconfigured to be right- or left-fixed, the handle and pivot pin can be removed from the exterior side of the door plate and can be re-installed once the door plate has been turned without it being necessary to access the actuating mechanism located in the interior of the door plate.
With respect to the options for selectably installing the door plate in a right-fixed or left-fixed door, or with respect to turning the door with the door plate already mounted, in accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the present invention it is provided that two pinions are borne in associated bearing rings in a symmetrical arrangement on the interior side of the door plate and the teeth of the toothed rod engage the two pinions. If the toothed rod engages the two pinions, when the toothed rod is actuated, one pinion is caused to rotate with no effect by the other pinion that is attached to the handle so that when the door plate or handle is reconfigured, the other pinion is used for the actuating pinion. Thus the door plate can be used as a unit in different installations without regard to the components built into its interior, whereby it is merely necessary to change the handle to a position rotated by 180xc2x0.
With regard to the desired selectable installation of the door plate for a right-fixed or left-fixed door, in accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the present invention it is provided that the lock, which is also to be used depending on the installation position, can be selectably employed in different positions in the door plate. In addition it can be provided that the second door plate area has at both its upper and lower edge areas an opening for selectably inserting the lock that extends through the associated through-hole in the door leaf and the other opening can be covered by a blind cap that is insertable in the door plate. For visual reasons, in accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the invention, it can be provided that the opening of the second door plate area receiving the lock can be covered by means of a sliding cap that can be displaced in the door plate transverse to the vertical axis of the door plate; using the sliding cap results in appropriately covering the blind cap used in the other opening on the opening receiving the lock, whereby the exterior view of the door plate is designed in an appropriate manner.
In accordance with one exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the blind cap and sliding cap can be convex relative to the door plate and can be exchangeably employed in a guide adjoining the opening of the door plate. Due to the convex design, the guide and bearing of the sliding cap and blind cap on the door plate are self-locking without having to worry about the caps falling out.